- I'm Morten Hilmer and this is beautiful Svalbard on a very, very rainy and gray day. I'm here on an assignment for Nikon to photograph wildlife with the new Nikon Z9 and together with me, I have Robin Levin from Nikon Professional Services. It is going to be challenging because this is wild
nature. It's a huge land. We do not know where the animals are. There are no guarantees
that we'll find anything or see anything but the
beautiful landscapes. But regardless, we'll
have an awesome trip. So this is almost too good to be true. We just got the drop off
and the boat sailed out. And then he came back marching and said 'there's a fox just on the other side of that stone hill.' So now in a rush, we have just readied the equipment. Like... find the lenses and stuff we need. Bring the... we're bringing the rifle. The signal gun. Now, because it's slightly raining, we're going to cover the all equipment. So if we spend some time there, which would probably does, if the fox is there, everything doesn't get completely wet. We always bring rifles because here the bear can be everywhere and that's not for fun. So yeah, after that, let's see, we have to find a camp. But we can not miss this
opportunity of a fox. It might be the only wildlife we'll see on this trip. So yeah. Z9 is ready. It's 180 to 400. And there's an 800. This can't go wrong. Here we go. Oh there it is. There it is. There's the fox. If you bring the rifle and just the camera in your hand - we'll leave the rest here so it'll be lightweight, The little fox is hiding behind all these stone hills. If we're lucky, we'll find him. Now, the fox disappeared. We've tried to find him
with binoculars, but now we're going to a place where we have a good view and then just to browse the area and see if we can find out where the little fellow is. Nice. This is good. I think I can see at least 12 reindeer. That was good. Ay yi yi. That was incredible nice. Not only were they not shy, they were also curious reindeer. So when I was lying down there ready with the equipment, and they started to come towards me. So what an opportunity to try this new Z9, and to be completely honest, I was a little nervous because I got the cameras in my hand last night on the hotel room. And of course I tried to set up the custom menu as I always have my cameras. And luckily for me, and
that is probably on purpose. The camera is pretty much, it feels like just holding my, my old D5 in my hand. So the fingers just basically knew where they should go. But what I'm really, really happy about is that we just arrived and we saw a fox. Didn't get photos though, a good photos. But now with the reindeer now, from now on everything is just a bonus. It so nice. Good. We just have to make... - Grateful for everything we have. - Yeah. Yeah. - Cool. Most important thing on this location, and that is the polar bear around. Because it's nice to have a, like a flare gun and it's nice to have a protection weapon, but when we are in the tent sleeping, the bear can get all the way to the tent. And this is potential bear spot. It's close to the shoreline. It's close to the ice. It's just on the coast where the polar bears are walking in their search for food. So even though it's a little annoying taking this up, setting it up, taking it down
and setting up, taking down. If we move camp, it's just so necessary. That was good. It was nice to get the camp set up. And I was in a really good mood because to be completely honest, I had been very nervous if we would find any wildlife at all on this trip. Now I had the beautiful
photos of the reindeer. A little later that afternoon, we got visitors, but luckily not anyone dangerous. Here on Svalbard, some of the birds, they're really not shy. Now we just need to see if we can get into position. Okay. I think I'm five meter from them now, and this is really good. There they are. Birds. Let's see what we got. Look here. Look at this. This is really crazy. I'm so close to the small birds and with the 800, I'm too close for the,
for the focal distance. But I can enjoy them. They're so cute. The little one. They're not afraid at all. So trustful. Birds in the foreground
with a view to a glacier. I don't think it gets much better. And then, look at this little fellow here. That was too much for him. Oh, this is nice. But it's too dark now because the birds are moving so fast. They are never resting. They are always active. Like fast, small movements. So I need a fast shutter speed and I'm already pretty high. But it's nice to see the eye tracking is working on these small birds, even though
it's so low light. It's nice. I could use to this, but I think I'll leave
the small fellows in peace and go back to the tent. That way. Yeah. Let's have a look at some of the photos. So, look at this. The little fellow was closing his eyes. It's all the way up to
ISO 6,000 at the end. Look. So good. Let's see what else we got. Now look at this. The water drop. That is pin sharp Look at the movements. What about this one? Yeah, there we go. That's nice. You can only be happy with this. - It was really nice to see
when you worked with the camera. - Yeah, no, I recorded on the phone and I know it's, it's like a shitty recording, but you can still see the things moving around. of course, if you have daylight and you have a big bird and it is all after the book, it will probably track the eye. But I was photographing these small little fellows running around in shades, behind eyes, behind rocks. And it was interesting to see that when the head was down behind the rock, it would have the bird, like the split of a second. The head came up, you just had the eye. And now I'm really amazed about that. - Happy to hear - The results speaks for itself. So now I hope you can forgive me that the camera's looking like a mess. But I think we should
let him give it a treat and you can have some chocolate - and then everyone happy. Yeah. I think we'll call it a day. Go and have some dinner because it is actually pretty cold. Ice is floating around in the water and then we better get rested. We're going to look through some photos, going to clean the camera, just going to go through again, some of the settings to get it all worked out and then yeah. See what happens tomorrow. Oh yeah. See you. Hey Robin. - I'm used to this. This is gonna be so nice. And well deserved today as well. - It's good isn't it? Mmm. Okay, so we were just transferring photos and then we heard some puzzling out here and I went out with a signal gun ready. We looked at each other and we instantly knew this is something bigger than a bird. We now move to a higher position. There's a polar bear around and I don't know where it is.
"I could get used to this" - pretty amazing results
Uhhh was that a 800mm f5.6 he was shooting with???
EDIT: looks like it was the f mount model.
This guy rocks! He is very zen like in his photography, and makes for a great Sunday afternoon watch when you can't get out your self.